Loretta Sanchez: ACA's enrollement numbers a success

Four years ago, the East Room of the White House was brimming with Democratic lawmakers, reporters, advocates and an 11-year-old named Marcelas Owens, whose mother passed away after becoming so sick she lost her job and, consequently, her health insurance. They were all gathered to watch President Barack Obama sign one of the most historic pieces of legislation into law: the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Over the past four years, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have voted to repeal or undermine the Affordable Care Act more than 50 times. But while they’re repealing, we’re enrolling. I take pride in watching our state lead the way. California’s enrollment numbers, which surpassed the 1 million last week, are double that of any other state and exceed our enrollment goals by 300,000. On top of that, the Jan. 1, 2014, expansion of Medi-Cal has covered nearly another one million low-income families in quality care.

These numbers are heartening, they make me proud, but they do not tell the whole story. While we deserve to pat ourselves on the back, we must also take stock of this experience and plan for beyond the March 31, 2014 deadline. We clearly know what we’ve done right, but we also know what we can do better.

Latinos make up over 50 percent of uninsured Californians, but as of the end of February still made up only 22 percent of enrollees. How did we so blatantly miss the mark here? How could this population, so pivotal in the 2012 elections, so integral to California life, be looked over once again?

Covered California must have certainly known that language barriers would be an issue. It seems obvious that everything that is available in English should be available in Spanish, which they did a reasonable job of on the website and with bilingual phone operators – though there were far too few.

But I was outraged when I found out Covered California didn’t have a paper application available in Spanish until three months into the enrollment period. That spoke to the broader problem: did Covered California do its research on how each constituency could best get enrolled?

While everyone was complaining about the website, did they forget to think about those whose only access to a computer is at the public library with a long line and a 30 minute time limit? A paper application is the best and only option for so many residents.

But it goes beyond translation. I have heard over and over again concerns from residents about turning over personal or financial data to government agencies because of both cultural norms and outright fear about what it could mean for their undocumented family members.

These concerns are often best put to bed by someone who will stand by your side, in-person, and walk you through the process. That’s why, when I saw the meager Latino enrollment numbers come in, I took it into my own hands and started “Enroll OC,” an initiative to organize and connect my constituents to in-person, bilingual enrollment services. Within a month, we had over 20 Orange County enrollment events on the books and were spreading the word with every medium we had, at every public gathering we could and at every street corner in my district. This grassroots, personal outreach is the kind of work necessary to reach those who the law was meant to help.

We have come a long way from the East Room signing ceremony, but the truth is that this is just the beginning of our journey.

Marcelas Owens is now covered by the Affordable Care Act and that is historic in itself. But the onus is upon us to make sure every individual has the same access and opportunity as him, regardless of the language they speak or the town they live in. The lessons we have learned from the first enrollment period cannot be forgotten after March 31 and I will make sure they aren’t.

So while House Republicans continue their fruitless repeal efforts and other states fight over whether or not they should expand Medicaid, California will continue to progress, move forward and get every eligible Californian enrolled in quality, affordable health care.

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